


Dare You To Move

by Rrrowr



Category: Glee
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-03-19
Updated: 2012-03-19
Packaged: 2017-11-02 05:16:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,280
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/365369
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rrrowr/pseuds/Rrrowr
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Blaine is at McKinley and Dave is out of the closet, but that doesn't mean that they're best buds now, even if Kurt has taken Dave off his shit-list. Still, when Mr. Schuester asks for a member of New Directions to help Dave with the choreography for their next dance number, Blaine doesn't say no.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dare You To Move

The choir room felt different without other people in it -- too still and too quiet compared to the ruckus it normally contained. Left empty after school, though, it was one of the better places to practice. The auditorium had more room and actual acoustics, but the stage also had a steep drop off and Dave wasn't about to break his neck for a singing competition even if New Directions was made up of the people who were his only company these days. On the plus side, fewer people came into the choir room than the auditorium and there were doors that could be shut and locked. It afforded a bit more privacy as Blaine swept in with his ipod dock and turned on some music for them.

"Let's get one thing straight," Dave said right from the start. "I don't mind the singing and the dancing, but I don't have to like that we're doing it together."

"Chill," Blaine replied, putting all his expression in his eyes and brows in obvious exasperation to what he perceived to be Dave's overreaction to their being paired up. "I'm here to help you with choreography, not claim your virtue."

It was a great start, Dave thought, all things considered. Blaine was far more tense and twitchy around Dave than Kurt had ever been, but he hid it under layers of kindness and forced familiarity. Just being near Blaine, knowing that, made Dave self-conscious, but Blaine had apparently set his discomfort aside for the benefit of the team. Blaine wasn't the best dancer in New Directions by any stretch of the imagination -- though he definitely wasn't the worst --but he had been the only one not to make up an excuse when it became clear that he was having trouble with their routine for Sectionals and Mr. Schuester had asked for a volunteer to help Dave.

Blaine was not an ideal teacher either, but Dave could admit to himself that he was a little impressed that Blaine had the routine down. He'd seen some of the early shuffles of which the Warblers were proud, and it was nothing compared to what New Directions did regularly. When Dave had mentioned that, though, Blaine had shrugged it off. He was a firm believer in practice and hard work. He seemed to think that Dave's troubles could be solved if he merely put in a little more effort. Blaine's own learning method seemed to involve a great deal of talking -- going through the steps as he said them and starting over from the beginning if he did something wrong. It was slow and tedious, but thorough, and Dave got to watch as Blaine's compact, little body showed off a surprising amount of strength.

It was honestly far more distracting than it was instructive.

"This is stupid," Dave said after stumbling a third time through the steps. "My feet just can't move like that."

"Don't be ridiculous," Blaine said, reaching to help Dave to his feet and forgetting for an instant the way he usually avoided being within Dave's personal space. It took him a moment to come back to himself, but in that moment, he left his hand in Dave's. As soon as he realized, Blaine pulled away -- but slowly -- and Dave allowed himself the small delusion that the withdrawal might have been reluctant.

That was something Dave had been doing a lot in the last few hours -- allowing himself those few small pleasures. It was difficult not to when Blaine was the kind of guy to help with utmost sincerity once he'd set his mind to it. He'd been up in Dave's business several times since the start of their lesson -- whether it was to correct posture or to outright shove Dave into the right spot and once, even lifting Dave's face up to say, "Remember to look up. The audience won't hear you if you're looking at your feet." Dave didn't know what Blaine was thinking every time he had to remind himself to back off, but as for himself, Dave couldn't help but treasure every touch. It was so rare these days that anyone would bother, especially since his coming out. Kurt, at least, had his reasons for keeping the space between them strictly professional, but Blaine kept going back and forth on the idea, which was curious and very interesting.

"Look, no one will laugh if you look more -- you know -- _sexy_ than normal, but everyone will notice if you don't at least try." Blaine wiped his palms across the front of his jeans. "And anyway, I don't know what you're complaining about. Your feet can move just fine," he insisted.

"Not like yours." Dave flapped his hands at Blaine's feet. He'd just watched Blaine do a very convincing step-slide whose sass he hadn't been able to copy. "You have the whole thing down. Even that weird sort of... hip thing."

Taken by surprise, Blaine smiled a little, seeming to forget again that he was supposed to dislike Dave, and turned bashful. "It's really nothing. You could do it too if you loosened up a bit in the--," he gestured vagely at Dave and glanced away, "--well, in every area, really."

Dave bit back a full protest. "Hey!"

"No, I mean it. You're really tense," Blaine said, which Dave thought was funny considering Blaine had been flip flopping between like and dislike all afternoon with all the tension that came with not being able to make up your mind about someone. "Maybe you're more of an active learner than I thought." Blaine hesitated for a second then seemed to discard pretense altogether in order to step closer, grab Dave's arms, and drag him toward the center of the choir room. "Here," he turned until he was facing away from Dave, so that his back was a hair's breadth away from his chest. "Follow me, okay?"

Dave was the one to freeze this time, conscious of how easy it would be to pull Blaine closer. The guy was so tiny in comparison, even though his head came up almost to Dave's nose, and it wouldn't take much to wrap his arms around that lean, little waist or to press his face into Blaine's hair and smell him. He could feel the temptation tingling at the ends of his fingers along with the habitual, angry denial. It took effort to admit that he liked the feel of another boy in his arms -- that he wouldn't mind if Blaine got closer, even -- but it was something that got easier with each passing day. Still, Kurt had drilled into him the idea that being gay didn't mean that he had to be attracted to every guy he saw, which was another thing he was acknowledging every day, but Blaine...

Well, it was easy to be attracted to him, especially now, but Dave was aware that Blaine probably found it difficult to be around him, considering their history. When he'd first come out, he'd hoped that Blaine would be able to forgive him in the same way that Kurt had, but while Blaine had softened a little, there had always been an undercurrent of _something_. Dave didn't understand it, but Blaine had always done this thing where he looked at Dave for long, pensive moments before turning away. Every time, it tore Dave up to see it happen -- like he'd done all these things and _still_ Blaine found him lacking, incomparable to the already-strong, so beautiful, _amazing_ boy who was his friend. That he bothered teaching Dave anything, insistent when Dave was verging on surrender -- let alone get this close, close enough for Dave to catch wafts of the deep, dark scent of his cologne -- was nothing short of a miracle.

It made him nervous, though. Who knew what might force Blaine to finally make up his mind about whether he liked Dave or not? So tentatively, Dave asked, "Blaine? I-is this okay?"

Blaine did not look at him. "It's fine," he said. Abruptly, he settled fully against Dave. He exhaled heavily afterward and then tilted his head back to look at him. "See? We're fine." He was quiet for another moment, gaze flicking about in every direction before finally meeting Dave's. "Now you can't look at your feet. You'll just have to feel the choreography for yourself."

The song they were practicing with was on repeat and took a minute to cycle back to the beginning. In the meantime, Dave did his best not to notice how Blaine fit against him, slim and poised and trembling just a little. The reason behind it was an easy read. It was the same reason that Blaine kept pulling away and the reason why Blaine avoided him. Blaine was afraid of him and it was only because he was a nice guy who believed in the goodness of others that he was even helping Dave now.

When they started dancing, with Blaine guiding Dave into the right steps with his own body, the tension only became more pronounced. It got to be that Dave was trying to get a look at Blaine's face more often than he was trying to learn the dance moves. Not that it mattered. Dave could tell that Blaine had difficulty being this close in the way that he danced -- incredibly rough compared to his earlier grace and composure, like Blaine had to force his body to take steps he knew would bring them into direct contact.

Dave managed to shuffle through most of the steps before the discomfort became too much for him to handle, and when they were due to take a step forward, Dave deliberately held back. Blaine turned as soon as he noticed, and Dave thought his expression was unfairly distraught considering Blaine was the one who was so scared. Instead of saying that, though, Dave moved to turn off the music. In the sudden stillness, Blaine's harsh breathing was louder than ever.

"We're done," Dave said.

"What?" Blaine was at his side in an instant. "Dave, we were just getting it."

"Yeah. Actually, about that, I think I'll be able to get the rest on my own." Dave knew that he was being deliberately cold. It was his best defense mechanism, but for a split second, Dave regretted the way his words made Blaine's face crumple. "Don't give me that look, Blaine. It's not because of you."

"People only say that when it is," Blaine said, grabbing onto Dave's elbow when he tried turning away. "Tell me."

"It's fine." Dave tried throwing off Blaine's hand, but the other boy held fast. "Just leave it, okay?"

"No." Blaine's mouth thinned into a grim line. "Dave, please tell me. I won't say anything if you don't want me to." A dawning realization seeped into his tone. "Or are we running from our problems again? What do you have to be scared about?"

Dave had to laugh a little. "Scared? Funny you should say it like that when you're the one that's been scared all afternoon." Blaine seemed taken aback, but he looked away guiltily in the next instant. It was all the confession that Dave needed. "I thought you'd be past all that. Or is coming out, becoming a member of your little singing group, and putting up with the rest of this dump with the rest of you not enough now?"

"Dave, no, you've got it all wrong!"

"What's to get wrong, _Anderson_?" The use of Blaine's last name was just as deliberate as his tone; he hadn't used it since he'd come out as gay and it had been a kind of shallow, bonding thing between them to use their first names -- a kind of camaraderie born from their shared struggle. To see Blaine flinch at it, though, was not nearly as satisfying as it could have been, but Dave barreled on anyway because he had a point to make. Camaraderie didn't mean he had to have his past mistakes thrown in his face like this -- with its edges sharpened by fear. "You think I can't tell when someone's scared of me? You were shaking," Dave said. Silence sat bitterly between them for a few seconds. "Look, thanks for helping me out. I know it's just a thing that you do for people all the time, but I appreciate it."

Dave turned, fully expecting that he would leave with the most awkward, uncomfortable air trailing after him, but Blaine was pulling at his jacket almost immediately. It didn't do much good. He was a lightweight and so Blaine swung in front of Dave more than he actually stopped him.

"God, I knew this was going to be tough since you aren't exactly the poster boy for Out and Proud Magazine," Blaine was saying as he pushed at Dave's chest. Dave stepped back like Blaine seemed to want him to and Blaine followed, step for step until Dave's back was against the piano. "But I didn't think that you would actually think I was scared of you." Defaulting to an affronted, quizzical expression only made Blaine smile fondly. "Dave, since when have I _ever_ been scared of you? What in the world would make you think I'd start now?"

"What am I supposed to think then?" Dave argued. His voice had gone quiet -- oddly vulnerable -- and he wasn't sure why.

Blaine chewed on his lower lip and slid his hands back to the crooks of Dave's elbows, holding on gently but with the very clear message that he did not want Dave going anywhere. "Okay, you frighten me a little," Blaine admitted but continued in a rush, "but not for the reason you think."

"Spit it out then," Dave snapped.

Blaine rolled his eyes and made a frustrated gesture with both hands before fisting them in the front of Dave's jacket. "God, for a guy that's got such a high GPA, you are _such_ an idiot," he muttered and also: "I'm so sorry about this," before reeling him in for a kiss.

It was fast -- faster than Dave could say his and Kurt's kiss had been -- and Blaine had backed off almost as soon as their lips had met. Considering it had been so quick, Dave felt kind of silly for having chased after, struck with a sudden intense longing for what Blaine had revealed. Looking at Blaine now, it was hard to imagine how Dave had thought he was scared. It was true that Blaine had never been the type to hold back when he had something to argue about -- not even with Kurt -- but to see Blaine withdraw without further explanation, when he was so fond of talking things out, made Dave catch Blaine's hands before he got too far.

"Wait," he said.

His mind was running through a tumult of thoughts. He wondered how much courage it would actually take to assume Blaine' meaning without asking to be sure -- apparently too much because Dave didn't try to ask for clarification. He looked down at where he was holding onto Blaine's hands, at how they held steady within the grip of his fingers, and then back up to Blaine's face. He was being regarded with a sort of hopeful, uncertain expression and it was an easy step from sympathy to absolute surrender.

Dave tugged lightly on Blaine's hands and the other boy came without protest, face tilting up immediately in expectation. Kissing was easier without surprise and argument in the way. Blaine lingered, pressing softly at first then with more hunger once his welcome was assured, and Dave kissed back tentatively. Fear edged every nerve in his body, shaking through his fingers as he settled them at Blaine's waist and held on, but Blaine made a noise at the touch and stepped closer. He slipped his hands up Dave's arms and around his neck and there was the hitch of movement as Blaine lifted onto his toes. Suddenly Dave was gathering Blaine into his arms and lifting him onto the edge of the piano so that Dave had to pull Blaine down to him by the back of his neck in order to keep kissing.

It was something Dave hadn't thought to have while he was still at McKinley. With the promise of attraction, it was easy to appreciate Blaine in a new light. Now, the way that Blaine was all compact strength and slender limbs translated into the way he spread his legs to bracket Dave's waist and haul him closer with his heels. It was all there in the steel of his thighs and the knees that were squeezing into Dave's ribcage. Blaine shook when Dave scooped his hands under his ass and hauled him closer, but Dave knew now that it wasn't fear but desire that made that happen. It was in every response and Blaine was exploding with them -- from his shuddering, hitching breaths and the needy whimpers that slipped past his lips to the twist of his fingers at Dave's collar, under the fold of his jacket and twining against the crook of Dave's neck.

Even his voice managed to convey all the desire he'd been smothering under the guise of hatred. "Dave," he said, cracking over the sound but helpless all the same to saying it as Dave drew back.

For the longest moment, they said nothing. They leaned together, foreheads touching, and Dave watched as Blaine's cheeks turned red under the scrutiny. There was a bit of a smile working its way onto Blaine's face, stretching out his mouth enough that the swell of his lower lip wasn't so obvious. Happiness, no matter how hard Blaine seemed to be trying to hoard it in his chest, made him glow and Dave was glad to have put it there, to have pulled it from the depths so that it could shimmer under Blaine's skin.

Then, Blaine straightened, grinning a bit wildly, and laced his fingers behind Dave's neck, rubbing his thumbs over the corner of his jaw. "So," he said as he left one hand cupping Dave's neck and slid the other down Dave's arm to where he was holding onto Blaine's ass, "it seems we like each other."

"Yeah," Dave replied, glancing down to where Blaine's hand was covering his, and gave an experimental squeeze. "I guess so."

Blaine bit down on his lower lip and his fingers moved to wrap around Dave's wrist, but otherwise, he didn't react. "Does it bother you?" he asked.

Looking back up, Dave could see that hopeful uncertainty in Blaine's eyes again. Blaine leaned in as Dave took his time replying, head tilting just so. He wasn't expecting a kiss, like he had been the first time, but his mouth was parted anyway in quiet offering. Just seeing it -- it and the way that Blaine wanted it -- and knowing that it had been misunderstood desire all this time, Dave wished that Blaine had been honest from the start so that they could have had even more time to figure out this thing that was between them. It would have been nice to know that he could kiss Blaine whenever he wanted, but thinking that he could do it right now -- again, and then again tomorrow and the day after that -- well, that was very good too.

"No," Dave finally said and closed the few inches between them to give Blaine a quick kiss. "It doesn't bother me."

Making happy noises as he pressed a second kiss to Dave's mouth and then a third, Blaine seemed to take Dave's response well. Both of them were smiling as Blaine sat back to say, "Good. It doesn't bother me either."


End file.
